Applications of Microbial Fuel Cell on Sewage Treatment by Using Electrogens

Abstract

Renewable and clean forms of energy are one of the major needs at present. Microbial Fuel Cells (MFC’s) offers unambiguous advantages over other renewable energy conversion methods. Production of energy resources while minimizing waste is one of the best ways for sustainable energy resource management practices. The application of Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) may represent a completely new approach to wastewater treatment with the production of sustainable clean energy. The increase in energy demand can be fulfilled by Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) in the future. In recent years, researchers have shown that MFCs can be used to produce electricity from water containing glucose, acetate, or lactate. Studies on electricity generation using organic matter from wastewater as substrate are in progress.  Waste biomass is a cheap and relatively abundant source of electrons for microbes capable of producing electrical current outside the cell. Rapidly developing microbial electrochemical technologies, such as microbial fuel cells, are part of a diverse platform of future sustainable energy and chemical production technologies. In the present investigation to study the two wastewater samples, municipal wastewater from nearby areas of Guntur (A.P.) and Dairy waste from Guntur (A.P.) were used as substrates in Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) to generate electricity. Along with electricity generation, the MFCs can successfully help in treating the same sewage samples. The parameters like pH, TS, TSS, TDS, BOD, and COD were analyzed for all two samples. The COD removal efficiency of the MFCs was analyzed using the standard reflux method. All the MFCs were efficient in COD removal. 50%, 75%, and 85% COD removal was observed after 10, 15, and    30 days respectively of operation of MFCs with municipal waste as substrate.